Introduction to the news

The News

The broadcast that I watched was BBC news live which was shown from 10am to 11am.
Within the title sequence of this broadcast it showed circles of different shades of red and white to form a representation of the globe as well as different titles of different countries and places to symbolize that they do global news broadcasts. The soundtrack for the title sequence is quite upbeat and quick, like a countdown and flows well with the images on screen. I think that the title sequence may be like this to

The main story was Ed Balls making a speech unveiling Labour's analysis of how Conservative plans would affect non-protected Whitehall departments and accused the Conservatives of planning "extreme" post-election public spending cuts of £70bn. He also claimed to show how non-protected departments, such as policing and social care, would face "catastrophic" cuts if the Conservatives were re-elected in May's general election.

Other stories included; David Cameron pledges 500 new free schools(even though that costs so much of tax payers money), Britain's anti-terror scheme is a "toxic brand" and "ineffective", Owners has "no doubt" crufts dog was poison, Solar plane takes maiden voyage around planet, Teenagers killed in horror crash named, Mother of alleged rapist in India lynched by angry mob, Syrian family of young girls seek apology from MET and Baby survives fourteen hours in Utah river.

The role of the presenters
News presenters tend to be middle-aged and one of each gender, this is to appeal to a broad audience. They introduce and host the show by reading the news, interview people and report on particular issues and events that have taken place during the day or that week. Presenters may specialise in a particular type, such as current affairs, weather, sport etc. There has to be a strict dress code so not to clash with the colours of the background and to come across presentable and intelligent; they look like they know what they are informing the audience about.

They are usually involved in the careful planning that goes into every programme, including rehearsals and research. They may write their own material and they also need to be able to memorise facts and improvise when necessary. They keep the programme running to plan whilst on air, working closely with the production team. This often involves following detailed instructions whilst reading from an autocue and/or script, and responding positively to any problems or changes that is informed to them via a earpiece.

Presenters work across national and regional television and radio, satellite and cable channels, and also in the non-broadcast sector, e.g. training and corporate productions. Most are employed on short contracts and the hours can be long and unsociable. The work may be studio based or on location.

The Order of Stories
One of the most important factors when it comes to creating a factual news bulletin is deciding where each of the news stories should go in the broadcast, or as it's known in the news - ordering. The term given to the list of stories likely to appear in the show is the billing. There is, much like in many other industries, a standard way that the vast majority of news channels follow. The first story is determined through an algorithm of relevance, the more relevant the story is to the potential audience the more likely it is to be featured first. Stories that are deemed to have a high level of relevance will be featured higher up on the list. Factors that are likely to affect this are things such as international, national or local events. Recent examples of big stories are things such as the Ebola outbreak. This story is selected as it will hopefully hook the audience and keep them watching. The other stories are selected through relevance, the least relevant coming further down the list. The final story in the news is called the finisher or the "and finally" which is often a much more lighthearted story to leave the audience feeling happy as opposed to worried or upset about the news they have just seen. In the broadcast I watched the "and finally" is likely the march for International Women's Day as it is a happy, good occasion and would leave the viewer feeling good that lots of people have gathered to support equality. An important skill in the news industry is the ability to act quickly. This is due to the fact that news moves very quickly and certain points often become invalid, or irrelevant by the time it comes to broadcasting. If a story about a court decision is planned to be broadcast on a certain day and the jury have not finished deliberation by the time it comes to broadcasting the news team have to quickly schedule a different story to fill the slot. There is a final term for the order of stories that is deemed a "slow news day". This is where there are very few stories that are of relevance to the audience, or stories that have very little international impact. In these situations news is shown to fill the spot, most likely very lighthearted.

News values
In 1965, media researchers Galtung & Ruge analysed international news stories to find out what factors they had in common, and what factors placed them at the top of the news agenda worldwide. They came up with the following list of news values. - a kind of scoring system - a story which scores highly on each value is certain to come at the start of a TV news bulletin, or make the front page of a newspaper. Journalists and editors also draw heavily on their experience - of what an audience expects, of what stories have had a major impact on public consciousness in the past, of what is important - and each news organisation will have their own system of setting a news agenda.

Negativity -  Bad news - involving death, tragedy, bankruptcy, violence, damage, natural disasters, political upheaval or simply extreme weather conditions - is always rated above 'positive' stories (royal weddings, celebrations etc)

Closeness to home (proximity) - Audiences supposedly relate more to stories that are close to them geographically, or involve people from their country, or those that are reported that way(eg '12 Hong Kongers aboard Australia Crash Plane'). News gatekeepers must consider carefully how meaningful a story will be to their particular audience.

Recency - Newspapers are very competitive about breaking news - about revealing stories as they happen. 24 hour news channels such as CNN and BBC World also rate this value very highly. However, as we have seen with the events of September 11, stories may take a while to develop, and become coherent, so recency is not always the best value to rate.

Currency - This is almost opposite to recency, in that stories that have been in the public eye for some time already are deemed valuable. Therefore a story - for instance about the abduction and murder of a child - may run for weeks and weeks, even if nothing new really happens.

Continuity - Events that are likely to have a continuing impact (a war, a two week sports tournament) have a high value when the story breaks, as they will develop into an ongoing narrative which will get audiences to 'tune in tomorrow'.

Uniqueness -  Any story which covers a unique or unusual event (two-headed elephant born to Birmingham woman) has news values.

Simplicity - Obvious, but true. Stories which are easy to explain are preferred over stories which are not (anything to do with the Balkan or Palestinian conflicts).

Personality - Stories that center around a particular person, because they can be presented from a 'human interest' angle, are beloved of newspapers, particularly if they involve a well-known person. Some say this news value has become distorted, and that news organisations over-rate personality stories, particularly those involving celebrities ('Kate Middleton Goes Shopping').

Expectedness - Does the event match the expectations of a news organisation and its audience? Or, has what was expected to happen (violence at a demonstration, horrific civilian casualties in a terrorist attack) actually happened? If a news story conforms to the preconceived ideas of those covering it, then it has expectedness as an important news value.

Elite nations or people - Any story which covers an important, powerful nation (or organisation) has greater news values than a story which covers a less important nation. The same goes for people. Barack and Michelle Obama are newsworthy whatever they do.

Also a major factor when setting the news agenda is that if a newspaper or news programme is the first and only news organisation breaking a story, then they will rate that very highly. The UK Sunday papers are very fond of exclusives, and will often break a story of national or international importance that no one else has.

Broadcast about the Chowles
The report was about the effect of cuts in interest rates. They focused on a family of three; a mother; Christina Chowles, father; Pierre Chowles and their baby with another baby on the way. The other people involved in this report was the council worker and the individual doing the voiceover. The story stated that after a year of purchasing their first house, Pierre lost his job due to ill health leaving them unable to repay the rest of their mortgage which consisted of £6000. Pierre and Christina Chowles, were represented as quite weak people that needed help. The way that this was done was, for example, in the first scene Pierre was seen slipping in the snow, to show that he had trouble. Another scene which was intended for the audience to feel sorry for the people features in it is where there is a shot of their baby playing. Their worry is also very visible in the way that they talk and the way that they are seen in the shots given. I felt sympathetic towards the people represented in the story as they were innocent home-owners whom had managed to lose their home through no fault of their own. I personally felt sympathetic towards the unfortunate homeowners due to the way they were portrayed as well as the fact that they had lost their home. The news story was narrated by a voice-over to help the audience follow what was happening on the screen, otherwise it might not flow as well as it does.


Using a broadcast I have found

In this section I will analyse a broadcast that I found and watched. For this I will use the story of two British fighters joining the anti-Islamic state fighters. The story revolved around the fact that people from other countries were joining the Kurd fighters in helping fight against the Islamic state, and importantly two British citizens had joined. Involved in the story were the two British citizens whom were interviewed about their involvement, the reporter who was visible and active in the conversations and a third person who had joined the fight. The people in the story were represented fairly and equally, and overall impartially. The story was interesting and kept my attention throughout the whole piece and opened my eyes to something that I didn't know was happening. I felt quite sympathetic towards the people in the piece as they were fighting against something they didn't believe in, however I did feel like it was their choice to fight so I was not completely sympathetic towards them. The piece used narrative to help structure the footage and the reporter was also talking to the people therein, face-to-face and his presence was visible.

Bias

The act of being biased is, in basic terms, being swayed towards a certain viewpoint or way of thinking through a number of different techniques such as through selection, order and placement, wording of a headline, camera angles, use of captions and overall choice of words. I will discuss the ways and techniques that news could be biased. 

Selection
The first way in which news could be biased is through selection, the news network will choose what they want to show and what they want to omit from the programme. An example of this would be where certain stories would not make the headlines due to them not being deemed newsworthy or simply because they want to sway the audience a certain way. 

Order and placement
A further technique of bias utilised by news networks is through order and placement, this is where the news network will decide where things are ordered, things that are higher up in the order will be top stories and will therefore get more coverage whereas stories that are lower in the order will get less airtime. An example of this would be in the news broadcast I watched in the previous section, stories of British men joining the fight against the Islamic state was given more airtime, as it was the first story, and further stories had less airtime due to this. 

Wording of a Headline
Another way in which a news network may use bias is where they will choose the wording of a headline carefully as to sway an audience a certain way. An example of this would be the way the main headline was announced saying that "a teacher and a city trader, the Britons gone to Syria to fight against Islamic state". This is the first headline of the show and it is not mitigated at all, it jumps straight into the action. 

Camera angles
A further way in which the media uses bias is the camera angles. The way in which different scenes are shot can affect how the audience interprets what they are being told. An example of this would be in the story about the British men going to fight in Syria where camera angles are used to show close-ups of their faces. This shows people their emotion in a close, intimate way that could sway their opinion of the men. 

Use of captions
Another way in which news networks can be biased is through the use of captions. This would be where the description of experts used on the news could sway the public's opinion of some, if someone had the caption "paleontologist" they would be more respected than if they had the caption "dinosaur expert" as it sounds more professional. An example of this would be in the news broadcast I watched a police officer that was investigating alleged sexual abuse was described as "Former Officer, South Yorkshire Police". The use of this title makes him seem a more reputable source than had they used "Former Police Office" as it gives where he was a police officer, making it feel more authentic to the viewer thus potentially swaying their opinion. 

Choice of words
The final way in which the news can be biased is through their choice of words. Nothing is as expressive as the English language, simply due to the sheer number of synonyms and words in the dictionary therefore the choice of words can have a huge impact on how something is interpreted. This can be seen throughout the broadcast as only formal language is used to make everything feel more professional. This could sway the audience's opinion as the way in which it is said, and the words used, can change opinions. A specific example of this, however, would be where the presenter says "A British teacher and former soldier has traveled to Syria to join the fight against so called Islamic state". This uses certain phrases and words that are seen as formal such as "former", "so called" and "traveled", where if it were in an informal setting the presenter could have said "a British teacher and ex-soldier has gone to Syria to join the fight against Islamic state". Therefore removing the formality, this would be exactly the same sentence but it would give off a much different message to the audience.